The AtmosphereConf talks your skyline missed
docs: add README
Covers the project's purpose (anti-algorithm for ATmosphereConf VODs that
inverts attention to surface what your network missed), the three-layer
client-side scoring architecture, the custom watch.understory.* lexicons,
the tech stack, local dev + build instructions, the data pipeline scripts,
and the staging→main branch workflow.
Closes #48.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
+206
+206
README.md
+206
README.md
···
1
+
# Understory
2
+
3
+
A social anti-algorithm for ATmosphereConf 2026 VODs, built on AT Protocol.
4
+
5
+
`understory.watch` shows you the conference talks your network *missed* — not
6
+
the ones it amplified. Where a normal feed surfaces what's loud, Understory
7
+
inverts that signal: the brighter a talk glows, the fewer of your follows
8
+
engaged with it. The visual metaphor is a forest floor at night —
9
+
bioluminescent green for the undiscovered, fading darkness for what your
10
+
network already covered.
11
+
12
+
## How it scores
13
+
14
+
All scoring runs in the browser. There is no backend scoring server. Three
15
+
layers combine into the final glow:
16
+
17
+
1. **Network attention (inverted).** When you log in, Understory crawls your
18
+
Bluesky follows' posts during the conference window, matches them to
19
+
talks via `community.lexicon.calendar.event` linkage and Constellation
20
+
RSVP backlinks, and inverts the result: high attention → low score → no
21
+
glow. Talks no one in your network discussed glow brightest.
22
+
2. **Interest similarity.** Cosine similarity between dense embeddings of
23
+
your recent posts and per-talk transcript embeddings published as
24
+
`watch.understory.topicIndex` records.
25
+
3. **Friend overrides.** `watch.understory.recommendation` records published
26
+
to friends' own PDS repos can promote specific talks regardless of how
27
+
much general attention they got.
28
+
29
+
The three layers are weighted, normalized against the engaged subset of your
30
+
follows (not your full follow list — that dilutes everything to near-zero),
31
+
and projected onto a continuous CSS `--glow` variable that drives both the
32
+
card opacity fade and the multi-layer box-shadow.
33
+
34
+
## Custom AT Protocol lexicons
35
+
36
+
Authority NSID: `watch.understory`
37
+
38
+
| Lexicon | Purpose |
39
+
|---|---|
40
+
| `watch.understory.talkRef` | Joins `place.stream.video` records to `community.lexicon.calendar.event` |
41
+
| `watch.understory.transcript` | Timestamped, speaker-attributed transcript segments |
42
+
| `watch.understory.topicIndex` | Dense embeddings + topic labels for interest matching |
43
+
| `watch.understory.recommendation` | User-published social recommendations (lives on each user's own PDS) |
44
+
45
+
## Tech stack
46
+
47
+
- **Next.js 16** with the App Router, **React 19**, **TypeScript 5**
48
+
- **Tailwind CSS 4** with a custom "bioluminescent understory" theme
49
+
- **HLS.js** for VOD playback
50
+
- **`@atproto/api`** + **`@atproto/oauth-client-node`** for AT Protocol OAuth and PDS calls
51
+
- **AssemblyAI** (`universal-3-pro` model) for offline transcript generation
52
+
- **Vitest** for testing
53
+
54
+
## Local development
55
+
56
+
### Prerequisites
57
+
58
+
- **Node.js 20+**
59
+
- **ffmpeg** (only required if you plan to re-run the transcription pipeline)
60
+
- An AssemblyAI API key (only required for transcription)
61
+
62
+
### First-time setup
63
+
64
+
```bash
65
+
npm install
66
+
cp .env.example .env # if .env.example exists; otherwise see below
67
+
```
68
+
69
+
Create `.env` with at least:
70
+
71
+
```
72
+
APP_URL=http://localhost:3000
73
+
ASSEMBLYAI_API_KEY=your-key-here # only needed for `npm run transcribe`
74
+
```
75
+
76
+
`APP_URL` must be your app's public URL — it's used to generate the AT
77
+
Protocol OAuth client metadata. Use `http://localhost:3000` for local dev
78
+
and your production URL when deployed.
79
+
80
+
### Run the dev server
81
+
82
+
```bash
83
+
npm run dev
84
+
```
85
+
86
+
The site is then served at `http://localhost:3000`.
87
+
88
+
For local UI work without the social graph crawl (no Bluesky login needed),
89
+
seed mock crawl data and start the server with the mock toggle:
90
+
91
+
```bash
92
+
npx tsx scripts/seed-mock-crawl.ts
93
+
MOCK_CRAWL=1 npm run dev
94
+
```
95
+
96
+
### Build for production
97
+
98
+
Understory builds in Next.js standalone mode and bundles the `data/`
99
+
directory (~125 MB of transcripts and talk metadata) into the standalone
100
+
output via `outputFileTracingIncludes`.
101
+
102
+
```bash
103
+
npm run build
104
+
npm start
105
+
```
106
+
107
+
`npm run build` runs Next's build, then a `postbuild` script copies
108
+
`.next/static`, `public/`, and `data/` into `.next/standalone/`. `npm start`
109
+
runs the standalone server, which expects `APP_URL` and `HOSTNAME=0.0.0.0`
110
+
in production.
111
+
112
+
### Run tests
113
+
114
+
```bash
115
+
npm test # vitest run
116
+
npm run test:watch
117
+
```
118
+
119
+
### Lint
120
+
121
+
```bash
122
+
npm run lint
123
+
```
124
+
125
+
## Data pipeline
126
+
127
+
Two scripts in `scripts/` populate `data/`. Both write to `data/` directly
128
+
and are intended to be run offline, not at request time.
129
+
130
+
```bash
131
+
npm run build-talk-index # fetches VODs + schedule from AT Protocol → data/talks.json
132
+
npm run transcribe # extracts audio via ffmpeg → AssemblyAI → data/transcripts/{rkey}.json
133
+
```
134
+
135
+
`build-talk-index` matches `place.stream.video` records on `iameli.com`
136
+
against `community.lexicon.calendar.event` records on the conference's
137
+
schedule repo via explicit `vodAtUri` links, with a fuzzy fallback for
138
+
unmatched VODs (timestamp + title similarity).
139
+
140
+
`transcribe` is idempotent — it skips any rkey that already has a
141
+
transcript on disk, so re-running it after deleting specific files only
142
+
regenerates those.
143
+
144
+
## Deployment
145
+
146
+
Deploy target is **Railway**. The full deploy spec lives at
147
+
`docs/superpowers/specs/2026-04-10-railway-deploy.md`.
148
+
149
+
### Branch workflow
150
+
151
+
Feature PRs target `staging` for Railway validation, then `staging` is
152
+
promoted to `main` via a separate PR. **Never PR directly to `main`.**
153
+
154
+
```
155
+
feature/* → staging (Railway staging environment)
156
+
staging → main (Railway production environment)
157
+
```
158
+
159
+
Required Railway environment variables:
160
+
161
+
- `APP_URL` — the public URL (e.g. `https://understory.watch`)
162
+
- `HOSTNAME=0.0.0.0` — Next.js standalone server bind address
163
+
164
+
## Project layout
165
+
166
+
```
167
+
src/
168
+
app/ Next.js App Router pages and API routes
169
+
api/crawl/ Server-side social graph crawl endpoint
170
+
components/ React components (LumeCard, ScoredTalksGrid, etc.)
171
+
hooks/ Client-side hooks (useCrawlData)
172
+
lib/
173
+
auth/ AT Protocol OAuth client + session management
174
+
crawl/ Network attention crawler (follows, search, RSVPs)
175
+
scoring/ Three-layer scoring engine
176
+
data/
177
+
talks.json Built talk index
178
+
transcripts/ Per-talk transcript JSON (one file per rkey)
179
+
scripts/
180
+
build-talk-index.ts AT Protocol → data/talks.json
181
+
transcribe.ts HLS → ffmpeg → AssemblyAI → data/transcripts/
182
+
docs/
183
+
understory-design.md Full design spec
184
+
superpowers/ Implementation specs and plans
185
+
```
186
+
187
+
## Credits
188
+
189
+
- **VODs** are hosted by [Streamplace](https://stream.place) on the
190
+
`iameli.com` PDS. Conference recordings published as `place.stream.video`
191
+
records.
192
+
- **Schedule data** comes from the
193
+
[ATmosphereConf](https://atmosphereconf.org) `bsky.social` repo as
194
+
`community.lexicon.calendar.event` records.
195
+
- **Backlinks index** for RSVPs is provided by
196
+
[Constellation](https://constellation.microcosm.blue) on microcosm.blue.
197
+
- Built on the [AT Protocol](https://atproto.com) and the public
198
+
[Bluesky AppView](https://docs.bsky.app).
199
+
200
+
## License
201
+
202
+
[MIT](LICENSE) © 2026 chaos gremlin
203
+
204
+
---
205
+
206
+
Made with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code).